| Railroad Name: | California Pacific Railroad |
| Other Name: | Cal. P. R. R. or Cal-P |
| Locale: | Vallejo - Sacramento - Napa - Calistoga - Davis - Marysville |
| Successor Line: | Central Pacific Railroad |
| Start Year: | 1865 |
| End Year: | 1876 |
| Hq City: | San Francisco, California |
The California Pacific Railroad Company (abbreviated Cal. P. R. R. or Cal-P) was incorporated in 1865 at San Francisco, California as the California Pacific Rail Road Company. It was renamed the California Pacific Railroad Extension Company in the spring of 1869, then renamed the California Pacific Railroad later that same year. Its main line from Vallejo to Sacramento was completed six months prior to the May 1869 golden spike ceremony of the Central Pacific/Union Pacific Transcontinental Railway.
Beginning January 1869, the company operated a passenger ferryboat (New World) from San Francisco to Vallejo and thence a railroad to Sacramento. It also had a branch from Adelante (later Napa Junction, now American Canyon) to Calistoga and another from Davis to Marysville.
The Cal-P operated independently from 1865 to 1876. It was then operated by the Central Pacific and was finally sold to the Southern Pacific.
Amtrak's Capitol Corridor follows the original Cal-P Line from Sacramento to Suisun/Fairfield on its way to, via Martinez, Oakland and San Jose.
When the transcontintal railroad first crossed the U.S. in May 1869, it wasn't truly a transcontinental line because it terminated at Sacramento, short of the Pacific coast destination of San Francisco or Oakland Harbor.
The first truly transcontinental railroad was completed September 1869, from Sacramento through Stockton, over Altamont Pass and thence via Niles Canyon to the San Francisco Bay Area, a distance of 120miles. That line was constructed by Leland Stanford's Central Pacific Railroad subsidiary, the Western Pacific Railroad (of 1862). The route over Altamont Pass was completed to Alameda Terminal in September 1869 (and to Oakland Long Wharf in November 1869). [Note: This Western Pacific (1862-1870) is unrelated to the [[Western Pacific Railroad]] (of 1916) that ran to Salt Lake City via the Feather River Canyon.]
The other route from Sacramento through Stockton, to Banta and Tracey Junction, thence to Martinez to Oakland, was able to avoid the heavy grades of Altamont Pass, but was 132miles, twelve miles longer.[1]
The Central Pacific was searching for a shorter route from the Bay Area to Sacramento[2] and was eyeing the California Pacific (Cal-P) road between Sacramento and Vallejo, completed in November 1868, which became the basis for a Cal-P Vallejo route of about 90miles when steamer ferry service between San Francisco and Vallejo was inaugurated by Cal-P in January 1869.
In July 1871, the Central Pacific offered to buy the Cal-P, but their offer was rejected. Central Pacific announced plans to build a parallel route of the Cal-P but diverging at Napa Junction via the Suisun Marsh to Benicia. In September 1871, Central Pacific gained the majority of its stocks and thus control of the California Pacific. The California Pacific, facing financial and expansion difficulties, finally was sold to the Central Pacific in 1876.
The Central Pacific proceeded to shift from the Cal-P Sacramento to Vallejo mainline in favor of a line diverging at Suisun across the Suisun Marsh to Benicia on the northern shore of Carquinez Strait. In October 1877. Central Pacific began construction of the 17miles of track across the Suisun Marsh to Benicia, but could not complete it until 1879 because of the unstable subgrade through the marsh, which required tons of crushed rock to stabilize the subgrade. A railroad ferry Solano was established in December 1879 to carry entire trains across Carquinez Strait between Benicia and Port Costa, which enabled the transcontinental trains to reach Oakland, California in a much shorter time.[3]
The California Pacific Railroad Company (Cal. P. R. R. Co.) was established in January 1865 for the purpose of building a railroad from Vallejo to Sacramento, with a branch off to Marysville. Connection between Vallejo and San Francisco was to be made by ferryboats. That same month the Company entered into contract with Dewitt Clinton Haskin to build the entire railroad.[4]
The California Pacific commenced construction at South Vallejo (west of the Carquinez Bridge) in December 1866 under the contractor D. C. Haskin. Rails began to be laid on April 10, 1868. Two months after tracklaying began, the track was completed from Vallejo, via Napa Junction and Jameson Pass, to Suisun on June 24, 1868.[5] The main route from Vallejo to Sacramento, actually to the town of Washington, California, across the Sacramento river from the city of Sacramento, was completed November 11, 1868.
The original route of the Cal-P mainline from Suisun to Vallejo is now the route of the California Northern Railroad between Vallejo and Suisun and can be seen along portions of State Route 12. The original Cal-P line ran to Vallejo, not along the present main line route through the Suisun Marsh between Suisun – Benicia – Martinez.
The Southern Pacific line between Martinez and Sacramento (or perhaps Oakland and Sacramento) is informally known as the "Cal-P" after the original builder of the line, the California Pacific Railroad.
California Pacific purchased the Napa Valley Rail Road at foreclosure on June 9, 1869.
The Napa Valley Rail Road was built from the head of navigation on the Napa River, Soscol, near Skaggs Island, to Napa, St. Helena, and Calistoga. It was backed by a group headed by Samuel Brannan, a Calistoga resort owner. The track from Soscol to Napa was completed on July 11, 1865. The NVRR reached Oakville on September 15, 1867, St. Helena on February 27, 1868, and Calistoga on July 31, 1868. After the Cal-P built through the lower Napa Valley to Vallejo, the NVRR built a connection south to the Cal-P at Adelante in January, 1869. The California Pacific purchased the NVRR in June 1869 when the NVRR was sold under foreclosure. After purchasing the Cal-P, the Southern Pacific operated passenger service to Calistoga until 1929. In the 1980s, as freight service declined, the track beyond St. Helena was abandoned. In 1987 the track from Napa to St. Helena was sold to the new Napa Valley Railroad for operation of the Napa Valley Wine Train.[11]
The Cal-P also built a line from Davisville (Davis) to Yuba City/Marysville. The track was completed from Davisville – Knight's Landing on September 23, 1869. The line reached Yuba City on November 22, 1869, and Marysville on February 15, 1870. A branch line to Josephine opened in 1926. The line between Knights Landing and Marysville was abandoned in sections between the 1940s (at the northern end) and the early 1970s (at the southern end).[12]
The line from Davis to Woodland was later operated by the Southern Pacific and currently by the California Northern Railroad.